Labeling suggestions

[now-its-dark]

Hi there, it is so awesome to see the editor in such a mature state already, thank you for building this tool!

I've been exploring the UI a bit and had a couple suggestions regarding parameter labels– I think the text label "sensitivity" for the velocity sensitivity controls on PW, pitch, TVF and TVA might be more clearly expressed in the same way as modulation sensitivity, as VEL SENS. The velocity sensitivity controls are one of the most critical sets of parameters, as they enable automation / expressive control of key voice params in realtime, so I think it would be helpful to be more explicit as to what they are.

The other labelling area which might be clarified is the structure section— If there were a "Partial Structure" subtitle above the 2 selectors, with a key (S=synth, P=PCM), then precede each selector with just "1&2" and "3&4". This would provide sufficient space to express the nature of each structure in words. Currently, the images already show the abbreviated version in context of a nice graphic, so having a worded version to accompany these would make it easy to understand what they do. (imo, the structures are one of the harder-to-grasp aspects of the voicing).

Maybe something like:

01. S / S | P1 + P2 Mixed
02. S / S | Ringmod + P1
03. P / S | P1 + P2 Mixed
04. P / S | Ringmod + P1
05. S / P | Ringmod + P1
06. P / P | P1 + P2 Mixed
07. P / P | Ringmod + P1
08. S / S | P1->L P2->R
09. P / P | P1->L P2->R
10. S / S | Ringmod only
11. P / S | Ringmod only
12. S / P | Ringmod only
13. P / P | Ringmod only

Hope this is helpful!

[sfryers]

Thanks, that's great feedback. I'll have a look at the form layout to try and make things clearer as you suggest.

One UI 'feature', which I realise I've not documented anywhere, is that the controls labelled in all caps (RATE, DEPTH, MOD SENS. and LEVEL) have an audible effect when adjusted whilst a note is playing. Any other parameter changes only appear to take effect when a new note is played.

[now-its-dark]

Cool! Glad to help any way I can :) One aspect I included there, but didn't specifically call out re the structures: I think that keeping the original numbering system is helpful, both for keeping track of them and for quickly comparing the differences between voices visually.

Will have to check, but I seem to remember that some param changes don't take effect until a new note is played when editing with SoundDiver also. I'll follow up when I have a chance to test it.

If you like, I can share some screenshots of the SD editor panel as a reference here, it is quite well thought-out, (though limited by the UI elements available in that environment) so might be useful to see.

[sfryers]

Yes, displaying the structure numbers is a good call.

I managed to find a copy of SoundDiver on archive.org- I didn't get very far with it on Windows 10, but it seems to be working well on my Win98 machine. If I'd have known this program existed a few months ago I might never have started my project!

[now-its-dark]

Oh nice! Can confirm that the latest version (3.0.5.4) works without issue on Windows 10. As a (half) mac user, I run it regularly in WINE with good stability also.

Ha yeahh, I spent quite a long time surveying the available editing options, it wasn't well documented historically that the mt-32 panel for SD existed. Not sure why that is, except maybe because it was created after the heyday of the device.

The setup and usability of SD are fairly cumbersome in a number of ways, to the point that I've actually been planning out an editor design for the MT-32 myself, to improve on those shortcomings, But your editor addresses many of them! For example, being able to copy and paste partials— in SD you have to manually set the params for each one, it can get very tedious.

[sfryers]

I've published an update (v0.9.2a) including your suggested features plus a few bug fixes.

I toyed with a few different layouts for the partial structure selectors- eventually settling on a box size not much larger than before, but with a much wider drop-down section allowing for a quite detailed description of each structure type. Although this description disappears once a selection is made, it reappears when hovering the mouse cursor over the selection boxes or partial structure diagrams.